THE NEW TOWNS

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aries to permit an adequate housing programme over the years to meet the
town's own need for new houses. Thirdly, the authority must be large
enough and possess sufficient status to carry the technical and other obligations
 which will pass to it in the course of time,
This raises some problems for the County Councils concerned. They
have faced already some of these in having to provide County services
(especially education) for New Towns in their area, and as the towns reach
maturity there will be others.

Finance

The most immediate problem, and one that has been the cause of most
difficulties so far, is that of finance. A county such as Hertfordshire, which
has four New Towns and two L.C.C. out-county housing estates, has had
to provide a great many services out of its rate fund for which it has not
so far received a completely compensating income, either from the L.C.C.
rate-subsidy or from the increased rateable value of the new houses. For
the current estimate is that to be self-financing for local government services
a house must have a rateable value about £25 a year. Each house built
that falls below that rateable value thus becomes a net liability.
This, of course, applies to all rates levied, whether county, borough,
district or parish. Yet too much should not be made of this liability. Over
the years, the rateable value should rise, especially in the town centres and
the commercial properties, while the cost of services is unlikely to rise nearly
so much. Some local government expenditure, moreover, arises in advance
of rate revenues. The construction of a new reservoir, street lighting in
some cases—to take only two examples—may be necessary before the houses
for which these services are provided are ready to yield a rate income.
There is, moreover, a further prospect of relief. In the case of New
Towns, the repeal of industrial de-rating—to which the Labour Party is now
pledged—would make a substantial contribution to local authority income,
and one that could reasonably be carried by the new and efficient industries
which have been established. These, even more than industrial premises in
an ‘old’ area, gain a great deal from the services provided by the local
authorities, and there is a strong feeling in New Towns that they should
make a rather larger contribution to the income of these authorities.

Education

A separate pamphlet could and should be written about education in
the New Towns. Where else, for instance, is almost the whole of the school
population housed in modern schools? And what effect does this have upon
the morale and efficiency of both staff and pupils? Is the bi-lateral or comprehensive
 school specially suited to New Town needs? Answers to such
questions have an importance which goes beyond the local conditions of
New Towns.
It has been hard for the education authorities to keep pace with the
inflow of children. As I have shown already, the proportion of children is
much higher than normal, and room has had to be found for them as they
come in, This has meant, at times, serious Qver-crowding—the use of dining